There's quite a few good anime sci-fi franchises. Gundam's already been mentioned, here's a few more:

Macross/Robotech-A transforming alien ship commandeered by humans stands against a force of giant aliens, and they use transforming fighter planes and music to stop them. Sounds corny, but it is actually well executed. Macross is the original Japanese series and has spawned multiple sequels, some of which are available in the US while some aren't. Robotech, which was a translated form of Macross in the 80s, was melded with two other anime series and given a seperate continuity of sorts. It's complicated

Neon Genesis Evangelion-Apocalyptic series which revolutionized the mecha genre. Mentally unstable pilots battle mysterious 'angels'-bizzare monsters-who threathen Tokyo, but there's a lot more going on than meets the eye.

If you like Firefly, there's a better-than-even chance you'll like Buffy & Angel as well.....especially the latter. I know those of a more SF persuasion tend to have an instinctual aversion to these two for some reason, but if you give them a fair shot I think you'll find they're pretty good. They have all the same strengths as Firefly, except with monsters and magic rather than spaceships and horses.

Now, personally I watched Angel first, and then went back to Buffy. That's doable. However, you'll probably get more out of both of them if you begin with Buffy and then transition to Angel when that show spins off.

Is there anything interesting on the horizon? All these shows are either over, nearly over or not doing terribly well (Doctor Who excluded since it's sort of unique).

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The remake of Survivors that's starting on BBC One soon, Charlie Booker's Dead Set starting on E4 soon, The Prisoner remake on ITV next year, Blake's 7 2 parter Sky One are doing and Clone and Being Human coming up on BBC Three, have all piqued my interest.
Dollhouse and a couple of other American shows look like they could be interesting, but none of their names are springing to mind at the minute.

I've seen Farscape described the way Neroon just did too many times. "It's Star Trek for the 90's (or 2000s)!", "It's a grown up Star Trek!" blah blah blah.

Star Trek was Star Trek for the 90's and the 2000's and if you want "grown up" Star Trek then watch Deep Space 9.

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Every franchise has its over-the-top phase and fans that get on others' nerves - including DS9.

Star Trek was and probably still is THE franchise that represents science fiction to the general public. This isn't a matter of riding on the coattails of another show, so much as it's putting one show in terms commonly known by others. My "phraseology" was also a play on words with a well-known ad campaign in the States for Oldsmobile a little while back. The point not being a question of maturity, but rather one of a different generation. It was just a light-hearted way to post in this thread and nothing else.

After I read your post I had to go look it up, to make sure I was right.

The channel will spend an eight-figure sum on the productions, all adaptations of books, during 2008/9. Additionally, it is setting up a £1m development fund for various other HD projects.

The first of the trio is a novel by former SAS man Chris Ryan, Strike Back, about a British military hero and a fallen war veteran now living rough in London. The pair used to know each other and are reunited by a Middle East hostage crisis. Indie Left Bank Pictures is making six hour-long episodes.

Children's book Skellig, by David Almond, is also on Sky One's list. It tells the story of a young boy called Michael, whose sister is seriously ill, and a magical creature called Skellig living in his garage. A two-hour television version is being made by Feel Films.